Mosinee May Day events subject of documentary

6:25 PM,
Oct. 19, 2013

James Kimble, an associate professor of communcation at Seton Hall University in South Orange, N.J., talks about Mosinee's 1950 May Day events with Gordon Rheinschmidt. Kimble and his colleague Thomas Rondinella are producing a documentary about the quirky historical event.

Written by

Two Seton Hall University professors are producing a documentary about Mosinee's May Day events in 1950, one of the stranger events in Marathon County history.

On May 1, 1950, the American Legion organized an event in which the entire city of Mosinee was the subject of a mock Communist takeover. Red forces invaded the paper mill town, captured the mayor and the editor of the weekly newspaper and "killed" the police chief. The event - which transpired as the Cold War was turning frigid and former Sen. Joseph McCarthy was charging that the U.S. government was filled with communists - was designed ...